“[Democrats] will say, ‘You’ve got your side of the argument and it’s the Constitution, but we’ve got real, live people on our side.’
“And we’re like, ‘We don’t care.’”
— State Rep. Scott Bottoms (R-Colorado Springs)
House Republicans are spending their first Saturday of Spring on another inevitably-pointless “filibluster” related to gun violence prevention legislation that Democrats are moving through the State Capitol.
Today’s attempted filibuster comes at the end of a week that began with the shooting of two staff members at East High School in Denver and ended with students descending on the Capitol building to plead for help in enacting new gun violence prevention measures. As we noted on Friday, Republicans in the state legislature responded to these desperate calls for help by treating students as a nuisance; State Sen. Larry Liston (R-Colorado Springs) wrote on Twitter: “How would you feel if rude and impertinent 15/16 year olds barged into your office unannounced and berated you for an unfortunate situation that you had nothing to do with?”
As Kyle Clark of 9News reported on Friday evening, Liston’s horrible comments were only the tip of the iceberg from Republicans. Last Wednesday — AFTER the East High School shootings — State Rep. Scott “There is No” Bottoms (R-Colorado Springs) flatly told an audience at a local church that the Republican response to personal stories of being impacted by gun violence was to flatly state, “We don’t care.”
Colorado’s GOP legislators are dismissing citizens coming to the Capitol to advocate for gun control. Sen. @LarryListon10 said East High students were “rude and impertinent” and Rep Scott Bottoms said they “don’t care” about testimony that’s “all about feelings.” #copolitics pic.twitter.com/WLA4VPBuRu
— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) March 25, 2023
The “filibluster” that Rep. Bottoms promised to undertake on Friday evening instead began today. Members of the Republican micro-minority in the State House have been droning on for hours in opposition to SB23-170, an addition to Colorado’s successful “red flag” law that seeks to expand the list of people who can petition for an “extreme risk protection order” to temporarily remove a firearm from the possession of a person believed to be an immediate risk to themselves or others. This bill is a common sense addition to a program that has already been proven to save lives in Colorado, but that matters little to a Colorado Republican Party that now operates as little more than a subsidiary of the “no compromise” gun group Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO).
Republican lawmakers literally don’t care about how gun violence might impact Coloradans or their communities. They’re not even pretending otherwise.
“And we’re like, ‘We don’t care.’”
That is a breathtakingly heartless comment, from the ‘pro-life’ party. We’re all being held hostage by a heartless, treasonous and just plain stupid minority.
The campaign ads write themselves.
They do, indeed. When a Democratic challenger can use an incumbent's own words against them, the candidate is in deep cow chips. Bye-bye, Bottoms
In competitive districts, Cook, that's true. But Bottoms didn't come out of a competitive district.
You’re right. But, people like Scott Bottom (-less pit) -s seems to be doing their level best to make their uncompetitive districts competitive. Like a number of others that use to be safe R that became competitive and are now D-held.
It’s part of the CO GOPs 64-County strategy. To make all 64 counties in CO blue. They probably won’t attain that. But they sure as hell seem to be trying their level best to make it happen.
Good point.
I'm old enough to remember when CD-4 was considered solid Republican. But after a few terms of Marilyn "Musty" Musgrave, it flipped in a wave election in 2008.
Sadly, once Musty's snarling frown was replaced by Cory Gardner sunny smile, it reverted back to its old ways.
Yeah. But in this case, it is seats that are, and have been, trending D, hastened by Trump and CO GOP incompetence.
Dave "Hold My Beer" Williams is the perfect "leader" for them to keep this trend up.
E tu, Kyle?? . . .
“I see Liston shitters. They don’t even know they’re Liston shitters. They’re everywhere.”
"And we're like, 'we don't care.'"
Republicans have often proven that they are utterly heartless and completely lacking in decency and compassion.
This is just more evidence.
And, despite what the six crazies on SCOTUS now say, the Constitution was not meant to assure maximum mayhem with the most firearms in the most hands possible. A future majority on SCOTUS will recognize that, in due time.
By the way, Republicans have also shown that, in fact, they do care about "feelings" when they reflect the "Christian" nationalist and Trumper perspectives they favor.
Deleting duplicate.
The Democratic super-majority got the gun bills through: https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/colorado-lawmakers-approve-expansion-of-red-flag-law